The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Bookies tip athletes to enjoy track glory at World Championships
Runners have real medal chances as amazing year continues
Courier Country athletes are being tipped for glory in the international stage this weekend.
Sprinter Eilidh Doyle and runner Laura Muir are being touted by bookies as the Scots most likely to bring home a medal from the World Athletics Championships, which begin in London today.
If both manage to do so, it would continue a remarkable run of sporting success for the county after Milnathort-trained One For Arthur became the first Scottish winner of the Grand National in nearly four decades in April and Kinnesswood canoeist Eilidh Gibson won European Championship gold in June.
Former Perth Grammar School teacher Eilidh Doyle, from Kinross, is looking for a hat-trick of gongs after taking relay bronze in 2013 and 2015, and the Team GB captain is going in the 400 metres hurdles and the 4x400 metres this time around.
Meanwhile, Milnathort student vet Laura Muir – who also attended Kinross High School – is among the favourites in the 1,500 metres and is also competing in the 5,000 metres.
McBookie.com has both as 5/4 shots to land a medal – and it’s 4/1 that there’s a Kinross-shire double celebration.
Paul Petrie, spokesman for the firm, said: “It’s like there’s something in the water – it’s turning into an amazing year for these few square miles.
“It’s incredible to think that over the next fortnight, the Kinross area could bring home more medals at a World Championships than the whole of Scotland has ever managed to do before.
“Scottish athletics as a whole is on the crest of a wave at the moment and we’re punching well above our weight with 13 out of Team GB’s 78 athletes.”
Success has been sparse at past Championships, but McBookie.com reckons it’s 4/6 that Scots will notch a least a couple of medals this time.
Eilish McColgan, from Dundee, is a 100/1 outsider to triumph in the 5,000 metres – 26 years after her mother, Liz, struck gold in the 10,000 metres in Tokyo – one of Scottish athletics’ finest moments.
Dumfries-shire’s Lynsey Sharp is 2/1 to get to the final of the 800 metres, which would outshine her dad, Cameron, who was a semi-finalist in the 100 and 200 metres at Helsinki in 1983.
The World Championships were first held in 1983 and are now staged every other year.
Scots have only ever picked up six medals in the 15 gatherings so far.
Liz McColgan’s victory is the only gold; all the others have been bronze medals as part of sprint relay teams.